Nithya Raman's vote count surged and exceeded Spencer Pratt's vote count in Los Angeles County long after Election Day.
Posted by Ask Dr. Drew, Checked
- Sources
- 5 support2 context
- Said
- 1 time·
- Confidence
- 85%
Ask Dr. DrewOct 21, 2026
Multiple sources report that Nithya Raman overtook Spencer Pratt for second place in the LA County mayoral count on June 7, 2026, after a large late-ballot batch, six days after the June 2 election. The post's claim that this was 'statistically impossible' is not part of the extracted claim and is not supported by these sources.
A guest makes this claim. Listeners heard it, so it counts against the post, and on the guest's own record.
What was said
… What I'm more concerned about are the registrar voters in the counties not properly following state law when they handle the ballots, and then they count the ballots, as we saw in Los Angeles County, for instance, Nithya Raman, in the late counting, far long after Election Day, she suddenly surged with her vote count and outpaced and exceeded Spencer Pratt's vote count. Well, that was statistically impossible. That was statistically impossible. So that needs to be investigated. I don't know about the machines per se, but I am concerned about people voting who are not supposed to be voting. We know that there's voter fraud. …
Ask Dr. Drew · · from the transcriptPost →What we found
Supports. NBC Los Angeles reports that Raman overtook Pratt for second place on Sunday, with a 3,113-vote lead after a count that followed several days of Raman trailing and then gaining.[3]
Supports. The Daily News reports that Raman entered Sunday's update trailing Pratt by about 7,500 votes and gained enough in the latest batch to move ahead by about 3,100, after Pratt's lead had shrunk over several days.[4]
Supports. The Hill (tier1) reports that mail ballots collected after election night reversed the count, with Raman advancing to the runoff, and that the county certified results on June 26, 24 days after the election.[2]
Supports. KTLA and LAist both report that Raman moved past Pratt in the late count as election officials continued processing outstanding ballots.[5][6]
Context. Snopes (tier1) reports that about 12,700 countywide mail ballots needed signature verification, and that there was no evidence those ballots were cast for Pratt or that they would have changed the advancing candidates.[1]
Context. The LA Times explains that the claimed zero-vote Pratt update was a misreading of a one-minute lag in automated AP data updates, not evidence of irregular counting.[7]
Sources
7 sources: 1 fact-checker, 1 tier 1, 5 not rated
- 1'Tens of thousands' of mail-in ballots for Spencer Pratt weren't rejected in LA. Here's the proofsnopes.com · fact-checker · cited for: context
- 2Ballots in the hallway: How California can restore lagging ...thehill.com · tier 1 · cited for: supports
- 3Raman overtakes Pratt for 2nd in LA mayoral race, results ...nbclosangeles.com · not rated · cited for: supports
- 42026 Election Results: Raman moves into second place in LA ...dailynews.com · not rated · cited for: supports
- 5Nithya Raman overtakes Spencer Pratt in LA mayoral racektla.com · not rated · cited for: supports
- 6Steady and slowlaist.com · not rated · cited for: supports
- 7How a simple mix-up fueled false claims about L.A. vote ...latimes.com · not rated · cited for: context
Where this claim was made
Said in 1 published post
Related claims
- Nithya Raman is expected to be elected mayor of Los Angeles.Can’t tell
- NBC's reporting of election results during the primary showed vote counts going up and down.Can’t tell
- Late ballots in the Los Angeles mayoral race were one-sided in favor of the candidate Ramit.Can’t tell
- California mail-in ballots are counted if they are cast on or before Election Day and arrive within seven days after Election Day.True
- Nithya Ramalingam is the mayor of Los Angeles.False